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Old chestnut - or could it be so?
I expect this has been put forward many times, but would it have been possible for Herman Webster Mudgett aka H. H. Holmes to have made it to London in the summer of 1888 and back to Chicago? Given his habit of assuming different names, I suppose examining passenger lists would not give much.
He fits the profile of a sadistic serial killer, indeed it seems unlikely that two such could have been at work at exactly the same time. He dissected and mutilated corpses, was suspected of murder at a very early age (of a childhood friend) and also closely resembles the recent identikit picture of JTR. He was the right age and had apparently almost supernatural powers of persuasion, in other words was capable of persuading the most frightened prostitute that he was to be trusted.
On the other hand it is not possible to prove that he was not in Chicago in the summer of 1888, indeed, he is documented as buying a property in Chicago then, although under a different name so it is possible that someone else stood in for him then
His daughter was born in July 1889, so that he must have been in the US in November 1988 - if my maths are correct! However he was known to have been absent for long periods on "business trips" and could have been away all summer.
The JTR letters do have some "americanisms", he obviously had a knowledge of dissection and the police did suspect an american doctor. JTR was a prolific killer if you take account of the number of victims in such a small space of time and Holmes is suspected of killing far more than he was charged with.
You could say that he would have confessed to being JTR - and I think it would have been in character - but perhaps he was afraid of a trial in the UK.
I am not at all sure that he was JTR but do have to take the facts into consideration. Now I need someone to confirm one hundred per cent that he was in Chicago at the time of JTR`s killings!
If you havenīt read it I can recommend the book "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson.
Please someone - prove me wrong!
He fits the profile of a sadistic serial killer, indeed it seems unlikely that two such could have been at work at exactly the same time. He dissected and mutilated corpses, was suspected of murder at a very early age (of a childhood friend) and also closely resembles the recent identikit picture of JTR. He was the right age and had apparently almost supernatural powers of persuasion, in other words was capable of persuading the most frightened prostitute that he was to be trusted.
On the other hand it is not possible to prove that he was not in Chicago in the summer of 1888, indeed, he is documented as buying a property in Chicago then, although under a different name so it is possible that someone else stood in for him then
His daughter was born in July 1889, so that he must have been in the US in November 1988 - if my maths are correct! However he was known to have been absent for long periods on "business trips" and could have been away all summer.
The JTR letters do have some "americanisms", he obviously had a knowledge of dissection and the police did suspect an american doctor. JTR was a prolific killer if you take account of the number of victims in such a small space of time and Holmes is suspected of killing far more than he was charged with.
You could say that he would have confessed to being JTR - and I think it would have been in character - but perhaps he was afraid of a trial in the UK.
I am not at all sure that he was JTR but do have to take the facts into consideration. Now I need someone to confirm one hundred per cent that he was in Chicago at the time of JTR`s killings!
If you havenīt read it I can recommend the book "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson.
Please someone - prove me wrong!
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